Disabled Boy's Dad Credits WWE Star Triple H On Son's Improvement

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JosephSpencer17
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Saturday, May 06, 2017
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Two words from 14-time WWE Champion Paul "Triple H" Levesque made a lasting change in the development of a boy born with spastic quadriplegia cerebral palsy, autism and epilepsy, according to the boy's father.

Ten years ago, Triple H and the Starlight Children's Foundation honored the wish of then 8-year-old Luke Woodley at a live event in Cardiff, Wales. At that point, Luke could talk, but barely spoke to any one outside of his immediate family. His parents were concerned about taking him to an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar people.

“To come to an environment he had never been to before was daunting enough for us,” Luke's father Grant told WWE.com's Jeff Laboon. “We didn’t know how he would react to seeing the show live.”

Before the main event that night, Triple H, one of Luke's favorite wrestlers, hung out with the Woodleys, asked Luke questions and made a major impression on Luke's life.

“There’s rarely a time when he doesn’t mention it — especially the fact that Triple H called him ‘his buddy,’ ” Grant said. “That stuck with him forever. Every time he sees Triple H on screen, he says, ‘That’s my buddy!’”

Luke is about to turn 18, and his father greatly credits that simple interaction with Triple H for Luke’s unexpected speech development in the past 10 years. Grant tried to get that message to Triple H for a decade, and after seeing Luke's photo, the Executive Vice President of Talent, Live Events & Creative was taken aback, struggling to put his reaction into words.

Every time Triple H appeared during a WWE show — whether taking out fan-favorites or standing tall with them — the story came up. Luke reminded his parents of what Triple H said to him.

“There’s rarely a time when he doesn’t mention it — especially the fact that Triple H called him ‘his buddy,’ ” Grant said. “That stuck with him forever. Every time he sees Triple H on screen, he says, ‘That’s my buddy!’”

Luke is about to turn 18, and his father greatly credits that simple interaction with Triple H for Luke’s unexpected speech development in the past 10 years. Grant tried to get that message to Triple H for a decade, and after seeing Luke's phot on Twitter, the Executive Vice President of Talent, Live Events & Creative was taken aback, struggling to put his reaction into words.

“It’s humbling,” Triple H said. “It’s amazing. By far, this kind of thing is the greatest part of what we do. Every now and then, it comes back to you that it’s so much bigger than you even can contemplate.”